Raptors ride hot start to a win in Philadelphia

Raptors ride hot start to a win in Philadelphia

PHILADELPHIA — Short-handed and playing that fatigue game on the first night back from a west coast trip, the 76ers showed plenty of mettle.

But it couldn’t trump the Raptors’ resiliency on this night as the visitors built an early lead on the strength of a dominant first half and then took every Joel Embiid foray the Sixers had in them to preserve a 119-107 win.

“We played really good,” Raptors head coach Nick Nurse said. “They had some flurries there. I thought the start of the third was a little wild but we hung in there. We had another one at the start of the fourth but we hung in.”

The Wells Fargo Center is not an easy place to win a basketball game these days and even without JJ Redick, who was out injured, and going with a tight eight-man rotation, the Sixers made this one very tough on Toronto.

But a trio of 20-point contributions from Kawhi Leonard, Kyle Lowry and Serge Ibaka sealed the deal for Toronto who opened what should be a telling three-game trip with a win.

Leonard led all Raptors with 24 points — including 16 from the free-throw line — but without Ibaka’s efforts or even Lowry’s this one could have gone in a different direction.

Ibaka’s early foul trouble kept him out of all but about seven minutes of the second half and without him in the way, Embiid got going but not enough to get the Sixers out in front at any point. The closest they got was seven points down.

Embiid, who heard ‘MVP’ chants throughout that second half, finished the night with 37 points and 13 rebounds.

Lowry, who was the subject of trade rumours earlier in the day with Toronto reportedly offering up him and Jonas Valanciunas to Memphis for a return of Mike Conley and Marc Gasol that did not come to fruition, responded with one of his better games of the new year.

Lowry had 20 points and six assists.

Afterwards, he responded to the trade rumours.

“I personally want to be in Toronto,” Lowry said, confirming he had heard them. “I never asked for a trade and my goal is to try to win a championship here and that’s what I want to do.”

As for the likelihood that he could be dealt before Thursday’s 3 p.m. trade deadline, Lowry said he does not expect to be surprised.

“I’m sure if anything is going to happen management will call me and talk to me and make me aware of anything that is going down,” he said. “That’s one of the things where I’m sure we have a good enough relationship to know what is going on.”

With the win Toronto wins the season series with the Sixers 3-1.

JUST A GAME OFF

Lowry sat down and before the first question about his status could even be asked he interrupted to say “I’m playing.”

Lowry seemed actually upset that there was any question about whether he was going to play this particular game, here in his hometown of Philadelphia.

“I’ll be honest with you,” he said. “I don’t know who listed me as doubtful. I didn’t list myself as doubtful. I never wasn’t planning on playing.”

When Lowry sat out Sunday’s game with a re-occurrence of the back woes that cost him six games just after Christmas, the alarm bells went off.

If the back was that wonky now after playing 12 games following an 11-game stretch in which he played just once, how much could the team count on him come playoff time?

With almost no indication how serious the back woes were this time around, the uncertainty seemed to put everything about this season in question.

Turns out it was a one-off.

“I was just making sure,” Lowry said of sitting out Sunday’s win over the Clippers. “There are times you just want to make sure you are right and you are physically right and sometimes it’s the plan to make sure you are right. I could have probably played but it was safer not to play and make sure I’m OK.”

TO BUY OR NOT TO BUY

In the next 48 hours or potentially sooner, Masai Ujiri, Bobby Webster and the Raptors braintrust are going to have to make a call.

Do they add the three-point shooting everyone this side of Nav Bhatia is clamouring for, or to they stay the course with what they have.

Head coach Nick Nurse believes they have to be better shooting the basketball from behind the arc, but stops short of saying whether they can do that from within or have to go out and get someone else.

“I think we all have talked about this through the course of the year that we probably were gonna shoot better or we could shoot better and we’re gonna shoot better, and that’s kinda where I’m still at,” Nurse said prior to Friday’s shootaround.

While Nurse would certainly be consulted if the team opted to add more shooting, he is not about to publicly pitch for additions at Thursday’s trade deadline.

The numbers suggest the Raptors are taking a handful more shots from distance than they did a year ago and are making a few less.

With the additions of Leonard and Danny Green, not to mention the growing threat that Pascal Siakam is becoming from distance, the Raptors should be substantially better from behind the arc this year than they were a year ago. In fact, they are shooting 34.5% this year compared to the 35.9% they shot a year ago.

The only returning Raptors with better three-point shooting numbers this year over last are Siakam, who went from a 22% shooter to 33.1% and Norman Powell, who is shooting a healthy 37.6% from deep compared to his 28.5% success rate a year ago.

The rest — Lowry, Delon Wright, Fred VanVleet, C.J. Miles, OG Anunoby and Ibaka have all regressed from a year ago.

Green’s team-best 42% from three and Leonard’s 37.4% are keeping the regression from being as apparent.

Miles, who has struggled from distance for a good portion of the year and is only just now starting to re-assert himself as a three-point threat said the changing dynamics of the team play into that lack of success from three.

“I think there are nights, definitely nights we don’t give ourselves a chance to find each other some easy looks,” Miles said. “And that’s even hard to say too because it’s a different makeup, different guys. The emergence of Pascal. The way Serge is shooting the ball out of the pick and roll. He gets so many open shots out of that. How can you tell these guys not to do what they’re doing?”

There’s also Leonard using his superior strength to bully defenders down and get just about anything he wants to the rim. Take all those shots into account and its no surprise the extra pass to find that open man behind the arc isn’t being made.

Then, there’s the ever-changing personnel.

“It’s just been different lineups and that takes more of a mental effort (to look for that extra pass),” Miles said. “It doesn’t come as easy. It’s not like the back of your hand anymore. The lineup has to change depending on the matchup, who has been out. It’s just been different. But we still preach it. We still run the same stuff. It’s just about us approaching the game and knowing what is open and what is there.”

QUICK HITS

Green will be joining Leonard and Rising Stars participant Anunoby in Charlotte for the all-star game later this month. Green is part of a star-studded three-point competition that will include both Steph and Seth Curry, Devin Booker, Joe Harris, Buddy Hield, Damian Lillard, Khris Middleton, Dirk Nowitzki and Kemba Walker … Allen Iverson was here to help out with the pre-game festivities. First stop as he walked through the Toronto roster is appropriately fellow Georgetown alum Greg Monroe. Next and with a long shared hug is Philadelphia native and huge Iverson fan Lowry … Not sure if it ever really left, but it really feels like Wright has his confidence back. He’s no longer going to the basket hoping to score. He’s going in there expecting to score. His closing minute to the first quarter was probably the best minute of basketball he has played this season.

FIVE THINGS WE LEARNED

1. That first half

Not sure it’s possible the Raptors could play a better offensive first half than that. Yes, the Sixers were just back from a west coast trip which is traditionally a tough game, but Toronto appeared to be getting anything they wanted. They shot 52% from the field, 47% from three and even with Kawhi going just 2-for-6 from the field had 72 points by halftime. Impressive.

2. Pushing the pace

Kyle Lowry was in hurry-up mode every second he was on the court and that seemed to work out well for the Raptors. The pace has been slowed down of late for the Raptors and the coaching staff was emphasizing it the past few games. Lowry made sure the Raptors stayed sped up all night.

3. Ibaka used them early

With no Jonas Valanciunas available just yet (he’s likely to play in Atlanta), the burden that is defending Joel Embiid fell to Serge Ibaka. Through a half, Ibaka had 16 points to Embiid’s 19, but was a plus-21 to Embiid’s minus-16. Ibaka though had three first-half fouls and picked up two early ones in the third, limiting him for the remainder of the game.

4. That end to the quarter

Give Delon Wright huge credit for one of the best finishes to the quarter of the season by the Raptors. Wright spear-headed a 7-2 run over the final minute and a half, first with his aggressiveness getting to the line and then with his sneaky defence, turning the Sixers over, and then again with another trip to the free-throw line thanks to some over-aggressive defence by the Sixers on the inbound.

5. Perhaps a solution

The Raps haven’t had much luck with final shots at halves and quarters, but gave Norm Powell an opportunity to end the third and were rewarded with a decisive move and a bucket. Small sample size but a team looking for answers may have found one. Powell is not lacking confidence at all these days.

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